Railway-track appliance.



. PATENTED'APR. 11', 1905.

0'. A. SANBORN.

RAILWAY TRACK APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB 8, 1904- W K 1s l4 19 v v; mm d,

, viz/11m.

Patented April 11, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

CORA A. SANBORN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RAILWAY-TRACK APPLIANCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 786,920, dated. April 11, 1905.

Application filed February a, 1904. Serial No. 192,683.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, 00m A. SANBORN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Track Appliances, of which the following'is a specification.

This invention relates to railway-track appliances, and has reference more particularly to a means for securely clamping or bonding the rails to prevent spreading of the same, for accurately gaging the distance between them, for bracing the rails against overturning, and for uniting the meeting ends of rails, the device being capable of performing any of these functions or all of them combined.

In many structural features the present invention is similar in subject-matter to the railway-rail clamp disclosed and claimed in Letters Patent No. 744,623, granted to me November 17, 1903, but embodies certain novel features in the nature of improvements upon the device of the said patent, more particularly in the way of combining with the said device a rail-joint for uniting the meeting ends of two rails. 7

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of two railway-rails with my improved clamp applied thereto, the latter being shown partly in side elevation and partly in broken section. 'Fig. 2 is a broken plan view showing the railwayrails and the upper surface of two road-bed ties with the clamping device applied between the latter. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional elevation on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2 viewed in the direction of the arrow, and Fig. 4 is a side elevational View showing the parts as they appear viewed from the left of Fig.2.

Referring to the drawings, 10 designates the rails, and 11 the ties or sleepers, of an ordinary railway-track. Disposed transversely between the rails is the compression member of the clamp, consisting of a straight flat narrow plate or bar 12, the ends of which rest upon the base-flanges of the rails and abut squarely against the webs of the latter. Formed integral with or suitably secured to one end of the bar 12 is a-clamp member in 14, a short downwardlyoffset horizontallyextending portion 17 underlying the rail-base,

and an upwardly and rearwardly turned end portion constituting a rail-brace. This latter part on one of the members (the right-hand one, as herein shown) comprises an upwardly and inwardly inclined part 18, having a depending vertical extension l9'abutting against the web of the rail, while the corresponding part on the other member preferably consists of a rearwardly and upwardly extending part 20, having a flat bearing against the outer face of an outside fish-plate 21, which constitutes a companion to the fish-plate 13, already described as connected to the compression member 12 of the clamp. The adjacent ends of these tie members may be connected and drawn together by any suitable means, such as the bolt 22, engaging a pair of upturned lugs 15? on the ends of the sections 15.

The device as above described is designed to be applied to the rails of a railway-track at points where the joints between successive rails occur, as illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. In applying the device the compression or strut member 12 is placed between the rails with that end thereof which carries the fishplate 13 directly opposite the joint, so that the fish-plate overlaps the webs of the rails on either side of the joint. The companion elements of the tension or tie member may then be applied by introducing the latter beneath the rails and carrying the ears 15 and the horizontal parts 15 upwardly and inwardly through the apertures 14, whereupon by inserting the bolt 22 and tightening up its nut the elements of the tie member are drawn to- This latter is i gether, so as to engage the outer sides of the l rails and clamp the latter hard against the outer ends of the compression member 12, the outer fish-plate 21 being inserted to proper position opposite its companion fish-plate 13 before the final tightening up of the tension member. The device is then complete and operative for its intended purposes; but if greater permanency and rigidity of the device in its character of a rail-joint is desired the clamping' and holding elfect of the fish-plates may be increased by uniting the latter by bolts and nuts 23 and 24, respectively, as is common in the application of such parts to rail-joints.

With the parts thus constructed and assembled the tightening of the bolt 22 effects a very rigid and secure clamping and holding effect upon the rails as well as effecting a very secure joint between the meeting ends of the rails on one side ofthe track.

It will be seen that the clamp as an entirety performs the fourfold functions of, first, a rail-joint by virtue of the cooperating action of the tension and compression members upon the fish-plates; second, a rail tie or bond by virtue of the action of the tension member preventing separation or spreading of the rails; third, a rail-brace by virtue of the upwardly and rearwardly inclined ends of the tension member engaging the outer sides of the rails,,and, fourth, a gage by virtue of the spacing effect of the strut or compression member.

While I have herein shown and described the fish-plate attachment to the end of the strut or compression member as employed only at one end of the latter, it is entirely obvious that in situations where two rail-joints are directly opposite each other such fishplate attachment might and would, conformably to the spirit of theinvention, be employed at both ends of the compression member. It

is also obvious that the device as herein doscribed and illustrated might be modified in unimportant details without departing from the principle or lessening any of the benefits secured by the invention.

I claim 1. A railway-track appliance of the character described comprising an apertured compression member or strut terminating at one end in a fish-plate and disposed between the rails with endwise bearing upon the webs of the latter, and a tension or tie member formed in two sections each of which passes through an aperture in said compression member so as to lie partly above and partly beneath the latter, said sections at their outer end portions extending beneath and thence upwardly against the outer sides of the rails and at their inner ends being provided with means for drawing them together, substantially as described.

2. A railway-track appliance of the character described comprising an apertured compression member or strut terminating at one end in a fish-plate and disposed between the rails with endwise bearing upon the webs of the latter, an outer fish-plate applied to the web of a rail opposite said fish-plate termination of the compression member, and a tension or tie member formed in two sections each of which passes through an aperture in said compression member so as to lie partly above and partly beneath the latter, said sections at their outer end portions extending beneath and thence upwardly into contact with the web of one rail and the outer fishplate of the other, respectively, and at their inner ends being provided with means for drawing them together, substantially as described.

CORA A. SANBORN.

\Vitnesses:

SAMUEL N. PoNn, L. F. MoGRnA. 

